Tasmania Continued

Friday January 11- Rest day! Since we had just come back from the Overland Track, we had a quiet day today with the family and just hung out in Margate. We slept in, dried our tent, did laundry, ... , the usual. Mieneke brought some delicious fresh bread for lunch!

Bruny Island




Saturday January 12- In the morning all of us went to downtown Hobart - Marieke and Henny to Salamanca Market and together with Harry we did some outdoor-gear shopping (gear is surprisingly expensive in Australia so we just bought some trail maps). For the afternoon we went to Stenerik's place for Erin's first birthday party. And since Alex, Yuki and Erin were flying back to Japan on Sunday - their goodbye party as well. Fun and sunny afternoon spent eating and drinking in Grove!

Muskee family on Fluted Cape

Sunday January 13- Day trip to Bruny Island! With the five of us (Harry, Henny, Marieke and us) we took the 7:45 ferry to Bruny Island, not far from Margate. The weather was fine for some activities; cloudy and at times a little rain. After coffee and delicious cake at the Hothouse Cafe, we walked for three hours to Fluted Cape and back. A lovely walk through the woods with nice views from the top of the steep cliffs. Before we drove back to the ferry we had "lekker" straw/rasp/blue-berry ice-cream! We have certainly enjoyed some delicious locally grown fresh fruit this Australian summer. Always nice to have a home-cooked meal ready for you after a full day out; Mieneke had dinner ready at 6 o'clock sharp.

Frenchman's Cap

Monday January 14- For Monday morning football we saw the Patriots win! Crazy that they broadcast American TV on the local public Aussie stations. We picked up our Nissan Tiida rental car and did some shopping and packing for our Tasmanian road-trip. Maurits' parents picked up Mieneke and we cooked the last family dinner in Margate.

Maurits in the mud!

Tuesday January 15- We said goodbye to Harry, Henny and Marieke and by 7:30 we were on the road to Frenchman's Cap - a mountain in the Central Highlands of Tasmania (that looks like a French Cap). We got to the trailhead at 11, had an early lunch and set out on the 17 km trek to the Lake Vera Hut. It was a clear, hot and humid day. And there was tons of mud in the 'Sodden Loddens.' Many pools of waist deep mud that we had to scramble around. Hard going... We are not 'hard-core' so would have preferred boardwalk! Pretty tired by the time we got to the hut at 6- we thought briefly about staying in the hut but since there were quite a few people sleeping there that night, we instead setup our tent.

LB in the rain-forest of Frenchman's Cap

Wednesday January 16- It rained during the night and still rained when we made breakfast. Being able to cook and sit inside is the great advantage to camping close to a hut! The previous night LB had gone to sleep with a slightly bloodshot left eye. This morning it was REALLY red. Given the medical facts: non painful, no change in vision, no trauma...etc- LB was nearly certain everything was fine- but it looked bad. With glasses on instead of contact lenses, we set out to summit Frenchman's cap. The first part of the walk was through thick temperate rain forrest with many steep sections. The humidity in the forest combined with the rain and very slippery tree roots made walking with fogged-up glasses super frustrating. Needless to say our pace was slow- so after about an hour Maurits asked LB if she would like to turn around- considering it would take at least another 9 hours to make it to the summit and back - LB chose to turn around. Back at the hut we enjoyed a mid-morning coffee and chocolate to lift our spirits:-) Since Maurits' family was still in Tasmania, we decided to make our way back through the mud that afternoon so we could spend another day with them. Since we were going back to a warm, dry house, we did not care as much about getting our boots wet and muddy. This made travel back a little easier- except for one time when LB fell into the mud up to her mid thighs! By the time we made it back to our car at 5:30 the weather had completely cleared (of course). This made it a nice drive back to Margate where we surprised Maurits' family with our return.

Surfing the wind on Mount Jerusalem

Thursday January 17- After a short internet search LB was certain that her still-very-red eye was not a problem- just a sub-conjunctival hemorrhage that would clear up in the next week or so. The day was spent resting and drying out our wet gear. That evening, Harry and Henny treated Marieke, Mieneke, and us to a wonderful dinner at the revolving restaurant at the Wrestpoint casino. Beautiful sea-food, views, and company!

Pretty 'Rocket' flower

Friday January 18- We continued our 'Tasmanian road trip' with a second doei (goodbye) to Maurits' family- we will see them again next May in South Africa. We were headed north to The Walls of Jerusalem National Park where we planned to do a 4-day, 3-night backpacking trip with Liz and Ian. We drove through the pouring rain and met Liz and Ian for a coffee in Campbell Town. Luckily by the time we got to the trailhead at 2:30 it had stopped raining, so we could enjoy the 6 km walk to that nights campsite at the Wild Dog Creek tent platforms. Half of the walk was through the forest and the other half more open through lakes and grassy fields - very enjoyable. We are still not 100% sure how nice it is to stay on tent platforms: they provide a nice flat camping spot which is comfortable with our camping mattresses, but because the tent is lifted off the ground it gets fairly breezy causing it to be a cold, cold night.

Our camp in Dixon's Kingdom

Saturday January 19- After a night on the platforms we decided we wanted a more 'wild' place to camp, so set off down the trail with all our gear. The walk was quite pleasant- a ton of boardwalk passing through open fields with views of the 'the walls'. Since there were already many tents in the wooded area Liz had camped before near Dixon's Kingdom hut, we continued down the trail a few hundred more meters in search of another spot. We found a spot and set up our tents, but were not 100% happy because the ground was fairly wet. We were worried that the ground water would seep through the bottom of our tent. Luckily, as we set out for a short afternoon climb of Mount Jerusalem, we spotted a beautiful flat, dry, wind-protected camp spot with a great view. When we came back from Mount Jerusalem, we moved our tents. After we had set up camp for the second time, the weather started to clear so we decided to finish the day with an hour-long walk to Lake Ball. It was fun to find our way to the lake with Liz and Ian as our guides (there was no trail) and to enjoy the late afternoon sun after a cool, cloudy, windy day.

LB on Solomon's Throne (King David in the background)

 

Sunday January 20- We woke up to the sun beating down on our tent with crystal clear skies- it was going to be a hot day. The Australian sun is super powerful! Great day to keep our tents set-up and go for a day walk. We took the well constructed trail up to Solomons Throne and then continued on an unofficial trail to King Davids Peak. We took our time and enjoyed the expansive views of the Overland Track (where we had been two weeks ago). That afternoon we made the most of the sunny day by relaxing back at camp with a book in the shade. It would have been a perfect afternoon, save for the many mozzies and march flies (big black flies that sting) trying to get us! It was fun camping with Liz and Ian- much talk about food and gear. Ian was proud of his 'old-school' gear- including his father's backpack from the early 1980s (likely as old as us!) and a thin foam sleeping mat. Liz has a food drier so she made gourmet meals which she then dehydrated- much healthier than the salt-filled freeze dried meals we had bought at the store. But we did enjoy our melted and resolidified chocolate!

Liz and Iain

Monday January 21- Another beautiful day - this time luckily more wind to make it more comfortable and a dry tent in the morning! We had breakfast, packed up and walked to the turnoff to The Temple (a small peak). Liz and Iain went straight back to the car, but we wanted to climb one more peak. We said goodbye after a fun couple of camping-days! Another lovely view from the Temple-summit. We took our time getting on the trail and got back to the car at 3pm. The last stretch in the forest was very hot and humid! Luckily we were going downhill. We got in the car and drove to Deloraine - a pretty little town in Central Tassie. We found (Tripadvisor) a great B&B called Bluestone Grain Store. A beautifully restored old building, lovely owners, excellent! In addition we had a fantastic dinner at Restaurant Red - try the Moo Brew Pale Ale. 'See you again in Deloraine!'

Part of the Overland Track seen from the Walls of Jerusalem

Tuesday January 22- Not unexpected - an excellent breakfast at the B&B! On top of all we had really good internet - so nice :-) We checked out, did some shopping and drove to Mount William National Park in the North East of Tasmania. We found a beautiful campsite at Stumpy's Bay #2 - just behind the beach and dunes, where the sounds of the crashing waves lulled us to sleep. We walked along the beach, relaxed at our camp and after dinner we finally saw a wombat!

Wombat!

LB at the Bay of Fires

Wednesday January 23- We were good tourists today! We had brekkie, packed up, climbed Mount William (216 meters !! - 1 hour return), drove to Eddystone Point, saw the lighthouse, had lunch, walked for 2 hours on the Northern Bay of Fires beach, drove to Binalong Bay on the Southern End of the Bay of Fires, setup camp at Seaton Cove and after dinner walked on the beach some more. A great day with comfortable cloudy and sunny weather!

Maurits looking for the Mount William summit

Wallaby

Thursday January 24- Last day of our 'Tassie-road-trip'. After enjoying a windy breakfast on the rocks with the waves crashing in, we packed up camp and headed for a short walk where the road stops at The Gardens (small beachside community) to view one last beach on the Bay of Fires. On our way back to Margate, we stopped at Freycinet National Park for a beautiful walk to Wineglass Bay. This is the most popular walk in Tasmania and well worth the visit- beautiful coastline with green mountains in the background. Since we knew Kate's Berry Farm (rasberry ice cream!) closed at 4:30, we raced up the many steps on our way out from Wineglass Bay and made great time...we were eating icecream by 4:15! We had Adrian's house to ourselves that night because he and his girlfriend Sarah were taking a holiday break in Bali.

Maurits in the Bay of Fires with Eddy's lighthouse in the background

LB on the cliffs at Eddystone Point

Friday January 25- After 5 weeks as our 'home-base', we left Adrian's house today. After laundry, a quick cleanup, and two last cups of coffee on Adrian's beautiful expresso machine, we were off to Mieneke's house to spend our last three nights in Australia. Nice quiet night spent watching the semi-finals of the Australian open on the tellie.

Maurits at Wineglass Bay

Saturday January 26- Happy Australia day! Although the typical celebration includes a snag on the barbie, we celebrated with Mieneke, Fred, Liz, and Iain at the local Asian restaurant. Not as authentic but still very fun:-)!

LB on Wineglass Bay beach

Sunday January 27- We had some plans to go on a last big bush-walk, but we only made it on the 90 minute Truganini track not far from Mieneke's house. Lazy as we were...

Typical Tasmanian trees (gum/eucalyptus, bush-fire-burnt & pencil pine)

 

Monday January 28- Our last day in Australia! We had a farewell lunch with Mieneke at Brooksfield in Margate - lovely! We packed our bags, said goodbye :( and drove to the airport. We had a great time in Tassie! We'll be back!

Mieneke and Maurits

 

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